Detection of NADH/NAD⁺ dysregulation in MELAS via diazo-carboxyl click derivatization mass spectrometry

Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) is a mitochondrial disorder driven by mutations in mitochondrial or nuclear DNA, involving an altered NADH/NAD⁺-associated redox metabolism as a key pathological mechanism. The traditional metabolomic analyses in MELAS face sensitivity and sample volume limitations, particularly for carboxylic acid metabolites. This study employed a recently established diazo-carboxyl/hydroxylamine-ketone double-click derivatization (DQmB-HA) mass spectrometry method to overcome these barriers, enabling highly sensitive quantification of NADH/NAD⁺-related serum metabolites in minimal sample volumes.

Using DQmB-HA mass spectrometry, we analyzed lactate, pyruvate, β-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, α-hydroxybutyrate, and malate in 5-μL serum samples from each of the MELAS patients (n = 70), healthy controls (n = 29), and CPEO patients (n = 17). Individual metabolite levels were quantified, and the lactate/pyruvate ratio and β-hydroxybutyrate/acetoacetate ratio were used as surrogate indicators of cytoplasmic and mitochondrial NADH/NAD+ redox states, respectively. Following this, analyses were performed to assess between-group differences in these indicators and to determine their correlations with disease duration.

MELAS patients exhibited significantly elevated lactate, β-hydroxybutyrate, α-hydroxybutyrate, and malate levels, together with increased lactate/pyruvate and β-hydroxybutyrate/acetoacetate ratios compared with healthy controls. Among the evaluated biomarkers, the lactate/pyruvate ratio achieved the highest diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.993, 95% CI = 0.979-1.000), followed by lactate (AUC = 0.976) and β-hydroxybutyrate (AUC = 0.864). Although the β-hydroxybutyrate/acetoacetate ratio showed high sensitivity (95.7%), its overall diagnostic accuracy was limited by lower specificity. However, none of these serum markers show a significant correlation with the disease duration course in MELAS patients. Relative to MELAS, lower concentrations of α-hydroxybutyrate (p < 0.001) and malate (p = 0.026) and elevated lactate/pyruvate ratio (p < 0.001) were observed in CPEO.

The DQmB-HA method enabled high-sensitivity metabolomic profiling in low-volume clinical samples and revealed broad alterations in metabolites and metabolite ratios associated with NADH/NAD + -related redox metabolism in MELAS, providing a useful framework for metabolomic screening in mitochondrial diseases.